image: guardian.ng

Yesterday, CBN finally did the only logical thing -- float the Naira. No more pegging the Naira to Dollar (and other currencies) exchange rate. And it is good news for me for several reasons, which I will be generous to share below.

1. Stock Market Rises
I have been noticing my stocks investment grow impressively from last week. It seems some people got wind of this very early. I even read in ARM's daily research report on Monday or so that the rise is because people are expecting CBN to devalue the Naira and ease Forex transactions. Well, they've not devalued but have very well eased Forex sourcing. All the investors waiting till they get a clear picture of the direction the CBN is heading are now happy and can do concrete analysis now. The expectation of the increased inflow into the stocks market has buoyed the hope of local investors and made them re-organise their portfolio in favour of stocks. Which is good/gain for me as I have moved my investments from money market to mainly stocks, knowing that things can only get better, not worse.

2. Better Economy
At least compared to that of the first part of this year. The companies caught in this Forex debacle have been slowing down their operations. Especially, foreign companies who have issues with sourcing from unofficial forex markets. Now there is some relief. And better economy means better business for me.

3. Joy of seeing something new
Finally, I get to see first hand how a nation transitions from managed float to free float. Even the CBN is not yet sure how this will be implemented. And I will be following to see how it is actually done. 

4. More reasonable Exchange rate
I don't mean stronger Naira but an exchange rate that is based on sound reason/logic. High or low. I can live with something I can explain, rather than something that makes no sense.

The business world is now data driven and every business professional must now be fluent in the language of data. William E. Deming had the most accurate way of portraying this new age: “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” Without data skills you will have a tough time influencing in the business world. You must learn to manipulate data, make compelling data stories and leverage data for insights.

UrBizEdge Limited, Nigeria’s leading business data analysis company is putting together this special training for proactive business professionals. This training is aimed at making you extremely good in Microsoft Excel, dashboard making, data presentation and business data analysis; teaching you with live business scenarios from our experience consulting for multinationals within and outside Nigeria. It's intended for Sales Managers, Financial Analysts, Business Analysts, Data Analysts, MIS Analysts, HR Executives and power Excel users.

This training is coming up on Friday 17th June 2016 to Saturday 18th June 2016 for Lagos and Friday 24th June 2016 to Saturday 25th June 2016 for Abuja. You will get tea break + lunch, a branded DVD with over 20 training videos and practice files, training notepad with pen, a comprehensive training reference material, a training certificate from us (UrBizEdge Limited, a registered Microsoft Partner) and free refresher classes.

The training will be facilitated by a Microsoft recognized Excel Expert and the only Microsoft Excel Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in Africa (there are just about 125 in the whole world and it is the highest level of recognition from Microsoft to an industry expert). We have had participants of our training from Citi Bank, Dalberg, SaveTheChildren, Mobil, Total, Vodacom, Nestle, Guinness Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Delta Afrik, LATC Marine, Broll, Habanera (JTI), SABMiller, IBM, Airtel, Diamond Bank, ECOWAS, Ministry of Finance, Palladium Group, Nokia Siemens Networks and DDB.

To register reach Michael on 08089382423 and mike@urbizedge.com or Hannah on 08021180874 and hannah@urbizedge.com to register. There is a class size limit.

Lagos Date: Friday 17th June 2016 to Saturday 18th June 2016

Lagos Venue: Kristina Jade Learning Center, 70b Olorunlogbon street, Off Alade Lawal street, Anthony Village, Lagos. 

Abuja Date: Friday 24th June 2016 to Saturday 25th June 2016 for Abuja.

Abuja Venue: Rosebud Hotel, 33 Port Harcourt crescent, off Gimbiya street, Garki 11, Abuja.

The training outline is:

1) Data Manipulation in Excel 

We’ll show you, from a consultant expertise level, how to manipulate data in Excel. From data preparation/cleaning to data formatting the professional way. We’ll cover both the science and the art of data manipulation in Excel, and share very useful keyboard shortcuts and expert tricks that will speed up your productivity in Excel.

2) Data Visualization and Presentation in Excel

A picture is worth a thousand words. And in the business world, it is often the only way to not bore your audience and pass the valuable message you’ve uncovered in your data analysis. We will teach you the foundations of data visualization – from the different types of charts to when to use each of them. Then we will work through business samples to learn the art part of doing data visualization right. You will learn the rules of business data reporting via charts and gain from our industry wealth of consulting for businesses in this vital area.

3) Large Data Analysis: Pivot Table, Pivot Chart and PowerPivot
You should never say you know Excel if you don’t know how to use Pivot Table. It is that important. It is Excel’s premium tool for analysing large data – sales data, inventory data, HR data, transaction data and most business operations data. We are going to cover from the basics to the very advanced use of Pivot Tables. We will show you how to create dynamic reports with Pivot Table; how to overcome some of its layout issues; how to turn off the distracting controls in your final report; how to create calculated fields; how to create Pivot Charts; and the special tricks only a full-time Excel consultant can show you that will turbo-charge you Pivot Table skills. Then we’ll show you how we analyse data of up to (and even above) 30 million rows in Excel. Yes, in Excel. Heard of PowerPivot?

4) Business Data Analysis 

In this section, we teach you the secrets that separate the analysis experts from the people with head/academic knowledge of Excel. It is one thing to know the different tools in Excel and it is another completely different thing to know how to expertly mix them together to creatively deliver value at high speed. As full-time Excel chef, we will show you the secret ingredients that make companies consult us even when they have Excel super users in their organizations.

5) Executive Dashboards and Reporting
This is the level self-knowledge will not get you to. How do you create an uncrowded insightful visualization for a report with 37 rows? Then how about for your sales analysis report of many rows and columns? How do you show the different interactions in your data? In short, how do you bring your data to life and take it from a boring confusing mass of text to an interactive exciting visualization? You have to come to get the answers.

6) Excel to PowerPoint

Management level reports are best presented in PowerPoints. When you’ve got a delicate story to tell, you have to guide your audience through a one idea/insight a slide PowerPoint. We won’t teach you how to design slides but we will teach you how to make your chart slides speak very loud. You will also learn the tricks of linking your PowerPoint charts to Excel. It will help cut down the hours you spend on weekly/monthly PowerPoint reports. We will also show you how to embed Excel files in your PowerPoint slide. No more sending separate Excel files when you can embed them right on the very slide you reference their data.

7) Excel VBA
Forget about all you’ve heard about Macros or VBA. Let’s show you how easy and exciting it is to break into the Excel VBA world.

Reach Michael on 08089382423 and mike@urbizedge.com or Hannah on 08021180874 and hannah@urbizedge.com to register. There is a class size limit.

You can also sign up for our highly educative tutorial newsletters at http://blog.urbizedge.com/

image: improveconsulting.biz

I am currently participating in Microsoft Imagine Cup competition as a judge. I am evaluating the software ideas and execution of university students across the world. I am amazed by how much they already know technically. Things I have been trying to know for over 5 years, they have been able to grasp extremely well while still in school. 

There are many days I ask myself why it is taking me too long to learn web development. Like am I now dumb at learning or is it that very difficult? Comfortingly, I believe it is because of the latter. It is extremely difficult. But not only that, I am also very pressed for time. There are too many times demanding my attention, such that I can't put in as much dedicated time as I would have when I too was a student.

I face a lot of roadblocks. I am learning, but not fast enough because I am having to learn too many things at the same time. And also having to earn. It is like the days are very short and the week runs out really fast.

My work has turned me into a tool. Good specifically for some tasks. I can look at data and see what most people won't see. I can do in 3 hours what it would take a sales analyst 5 days to do. I can debug Excel VBA programs over phone. I can solve Excel issues without being there or in front of my PC. I know too much about Excel and it has taken up too much space in my life. And it is my roadblock number 1 to learning web development, the future for my business.

It is very difficult to earn and learn from different fields at the same time. When it was only Excel I was interested in, learning was very easy. I was basically learning off the live projects I got. Sometimes I look through my past projects and wonder how I managed to do something that complex in Excel. Now, learning is very difficult when it is in a field I do not earn in. I am not able to dedicate as much time and mind to web development. And that is my roadblock number 2.

I have been lucky to find the key to turn knowledge into business. I am now good at getting marketplace attention in any field I want. I have earned from all kind of services I sold -- even ones I can't mention on my blog. Till now I am still struggling to get clients off me for the services I don't want to provide any more. It has not being very easy. I get too much attention than I want or is healthy for me. And that is my roadblock number 3. Time I could be spending doing the things I really want are taken up by requests I don't want to tend to anymore.

I really hope Henry Ford was right when he said, "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you  take your eyes off the goal." So if I focus more on my goal, the roadblocks should disappear. I hope.

image: wholeed.com

What is the eAdvantage?

It is the huge productivity gain you get from using online tools. The multiplier effect on your output that comes from strategic use of online productivity tools.

Everyday, I write. Not just on this blog. I do a lot of other creative writings. The last two months there were many days I wrote over 2,000 words per day. But do you know the writing that gets me the most interaction and positive attention? It is the ones I post online. Especially, the hurried ones I write every morning for this blog. My other writings often fade into oblivion after the week I am done with them, but the ones I post online take a life of their own and are constantly bringing me new contacts. And that is an example of the eAdvantage.

I don't go for networking events and I have stopped offline advertising. Yet I get more client requests than I can handle. Why? The eAdvantage. I run daily Google Adverts. So when people search for "Excel training", "Data Analysis", "VBA programming" and other things that relate to my service, my advert shows up. And they contact me. Saves me a lot of stress and extra staff. 

I like to see myself first as an artist, second as an entrepreneur. And what artists do and enjoy doing is creating. I love to create. Be in new articles (that's why I would rather get late to my training class than skip my early morning writing), or training content for my class, or programs for other people's use. I would rather be creating something than doing something else. I am very terrible at promoting myself. You wouldn't want me to give a motivational talk at your event. So how do I get people to notice my works? You guessed right -- the eAdvantage. If you do a google search for me, I dominate the results even up to the page 10 (and beyond).

I have contacts in places -- high and low, far and near. That I don't make use of this advantage is another thing entirely. And how did I amass most of these contacts? Again, you guessed right -- the eAdvantage. Weekly (wanted to say daily as it's multiple times a week) I get emails from people from across the globe. Nigerians and non-Nigerians. Telling me how helpful they've found my articles and contents and training materials and me. And some become friends. 

And most importantly, my business has survived and somewhat flourished because of the eAdvantage. I have peace of mind and assurance of greater things to come for the business because God has given me a safety net in form of the eAdvantage. With that advantage, I can get some results consistently and predicatably.

With Power BI, I easily monitor my website performance and see the important figures from any device I am on. Also, I am able to monitor my business finance -- track sales, invoices, expenses and instantly generate financial reports. And same for my email marketing campaigns. All in one central place. And you know the best part? The reports are automatically generated for me and updated daily. No need to have a staff make me reports or depend on my now less reliable memory to remind me to generate the report.

And what if I tell you that all these are free and can be easily set-up by you. All you have to do is sign up for Power BI.

Sign up is very easy. Then log in afterwards. You will be directed to a page similar to the one below.

And immediately redirected to the Power BI dashboard. In your case, you will see Microsoft sample reports. I have connected mine to my Google Analytics to monitor my website performance, Mailchimp to check the performance of my email marketing and QuickBooks to see my business performance.

Google Analytics Automated Report

Mailchimp Automated Report

QuickBooks Automated Report

So how did I initiate the report generation? Very easy. I simply connect Power BI to my Google Analytics account, Mailchimp account and QuickBooks account. And that's all. Power BI will generate a comprehensive report that shows you the important numbers all by itself. And if you want, you can customize the reports or add more analysis.

Just click on "Get Data" at the lower left corner to get started.

Choose "Services".

A list of all the services you can connect to will come up. Click "Get" on the ones you want the automatic report generated for.

Notice the detailed report of my business finances from QuickBooks

And that is all.

And if you are a smartphone person, like most of us, you should install the Power BI app from your phone app store (available for Windows Phone, Android and iPhone). So you can always view your reports on your phone. And it automatically updates everyday. No need for you to recreate the report or refresh or update. It does that daily for you without your intervention. That way you always see the most recent report.

Once you are able to get your business to be self-sustaining, I mean have it generate more revenue than the expenses, so you don't need external funding to stay in business, then being a full-time entrepreneur can be extremely rewarding with many main advantages.

image: womenentrepreneurship.in

1. Unlimited
There is no job in the world that gives you the liberty to do what you want, the way you want as being a full-time entrepreneur does. There are no imposed limitations. No one to seek endorsement from before implementing any great plans you have. There are no office politics to get sucked into and limited by. No single person has any significant power over you. You can try every idea that pops into your head. This is what I now most cherish about being a full-time entrepreneur.

2. Little Distraction
I was tempted to write no distraction because it's approximately that. I don't have to pad my CV with certifications or degrees. I don't have to follow any office culture. I don't have to live up to anyone's expectation. I get to focus very well on what matters. I work however I consider best/optimal. I might sleep during the day and work at night, and not worry about it annoying someone else. I work on weekends and often relax on Mondays. I don't have to follow meaningless trends.

3. Intense Focus
This is from the combination of facing no limits and having little distraction; I am able to pick the very field of business I want to operate and focus intensely on that niche. I don't have to worry that it will limit my job mobility. I don't have to worry that it's not the new hottest skill/field. I don't have to worry about the job market and recruitment trends. I don't even have to worry about what people (especially HR Managers and other business executives) think about my chosen field and skills. What matters to me are my customers. As long as whatever service/product I provide sells well in the marketplace, every other thing is irrelevant.

4. Long Term Strategy
I can have a genuine long term strategy. Their is no short sighted manager to convince. Also I am not bounded by the current strategy of any business. When I spot a future boom, I can position myself for it without the risk of losing my job or being demoted. I can scale down activities that generate instant revenue in favour of ones that will position me for dominant position in the coming future boom. I can more easily think long term -- 10, 20 and 30 years down the line -- than any employee. 

5. Security and compounding growth
The biggest drag with being an employee is having to combat job insecurity, career ceiling and partial restart everytime you change jobs. As a full-time entrepreneur, as long as the business brings money to sustain itself, all my security worries are gone. I also don't face any ceiling. Whatever I can think I can achieve. And most importantly, I can keep growing without any restart. Every of my growth compounds both in my favour and in favour of the business. I don't have to tell people I no longer work for XYZ company and now work for ABC company. I no longer have to restart credibility and relationship building every couple of years. I no longer have to deal with entirely new clientele and shut out old ones because of a job switch.

Every day I wake up as a full-time entrepreneur, I feel very happy and fulfilled that I have picked the best profession in the world. And I have found the job I want to do for life.

There are times when progress just seem disappointingly slow. 

A good example is my web app development learning. Somehow, my progress is not fairly reflecting the amount of work I have put into it.. I have begun doing some practicals. You can view the little I have achieved at www.nigerianelite.com 

It reminds me of when I was trying to learn Excel VBA programming. It was extremely difficult for me. Books weren't helping. The tutorials I went through were only good for doing what was in the tutorials. I particularly had a very long struggle with userforms. Then one day, things began to change. I started making impressive headways. Somehow, everything I had been finding difficult became easy and I became good at VBA programming for even very hard projects.

So I am not discouraged. I am patiently going through this phase in my web development journey because I know that when progress is slow, if I persist the breakthrough phase will definitely come.

Next month we will be having our Abuja training class. So far we haven't been able to get good enough interest for registration for the training. Even our monthly Excel class in Lagos has been getting more difficult to fill with participants. Lots of promises but few people end up showing up. 

Like every proper Nigerian would say, "things are just generally slow."

But what do we do?

My answer is we should persist through this slow progress period. Don't give up and don't give in. When the good kind of change will happen, it will be well worth the persistence and patience.

I am already working on the whitepaper I talked about two months ago. Thank you to everyone wo participated in filling the survey. I am done with the introduction; currently working on the body.

Below is the text of the foreword and introduction. Do let me know your feedback/suggestions. Thanks!

Foreword

Data is the new crude oil. And business success in the 21^st century is heavily reliant on the ability to mine and use relevant data about consumers, internal operations, financial operation and industry trend. This has given rise to a new fast growing industry: the data analysis industry.

Globally, it is a $16 billion industry and growing at a rate of 15% yearly. However, in Nigeria it is estimated to be about $150 million market and there are no strong local players in the industry. About 90% of the industry is serviced by foreign providers like Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM and Tableau. They often sell mass produced solution offerings that users have to modify their operations or data to fit into which is creating a huge market opportunity for a more flexible better product local provider with deep knowledge of the Nigerian market. And that is where UrBizEdge comes in. We are the flexible better product local provider with deep market knowledge to service the Nigerian market.

From our experience working with companies – from multinationals to small businesses – we have gained a lot of knowledge about the Nigerian market and this report is a clear presentation of that knowledge for the benefits of business leaders, data analysis enthusiasts and every business that is seeking to use data to improve its operations.

As the lead consultant for UrBizEdge, I have been fortunate to catch the early waves of the data analysis ocean, and it has afforded me the rare privilege of seeing an entire industry come to life in an interesting market like Nigeria’s. In interacting with dozens of companies and hundreds of business professionals, I have experienced first-hand the perceptions – both wrong and correct – that business professionals have about data analysis. I have seen business executives struggle with being on top of their business operations data; I have seen analysts confused by the plethora of tools available; and I have seen everyone confused by the different terminologies (business intelligence, data analysis, data analytics, business analysis, data visualization, etc.). I hope this report will reduce the number of people confused, and help business leaders and data enthusiasts make better informed decisions.

Michael Olafusi, Excel MVP

Lead Consultant,

UrBizEdge Limited

Introduction

Data analysis is the structured use of data for decision making. It is the umbrella name for all forms of analysis that the primary input is data. InvestorWords has one of the best definitions for data analysis: “The process of extracting, compiling and modelling raw data for purposes of obtaining constructive information that can be applied to formulating conclusions, predicting outcomes or supporting decisions in business, scientific and social sciences settings.” ¹

Data analysis can be descriptive, exploratory, predictive or prescriptive analysis. Descriptive analysis focuses more on using data to explain what has happened in a predefined way. Exploratory analysis is a similar to descriptive analysis but focuses more on discovering new relationships within the data analysed. So while it also seeks to explain the past (descriptive analysis), it focuses more on discovering new links within the dataset rather than testing predefined relationships (metrics and KPIs). Predictive analysis goes further than descriptive and exploratory analyses; it focuses more on the future, trying to explain what could happen. Prescriptive analysis is a step ahead of predictive analysis, using algorithms to automate decision making based on the output of the predictive analysis.

Recently, there has emerged new distinct forms of data analysis. And these are the ones that confuse most people. They are business analytics, business intelligence and big data analysis. I also see people confuse business analysis with business analytics. Business analysis is not a form of data analysis; in fact, it is another field entirely. According to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) which is regarded as the global governing body for the business analysis profession, “Business Analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.”² Business analysts have a lot more in common with project managers than with data analysts.

Business analytics is the combination of all the four levels of data analysis: descriptive, exploratory, predictive and prescriptive. Oftentimes, people use other terms like data analytics and advanced analytics for it. Business analytics allow businesses to make the most use of their business data to drive value adding change.

Business intelligence is purely descriptive analysis but on an organization wide level. Rather than having different departments in the company generate standalone reports, with business intelligence the reports can be unified with drill down capabilities from company level to unit level. Businesses use business intelligence to have a wholesome understanding of what is happening at all operational levels of the business. It does not make predictions or prescriptions, but it shows what has happened till now. And in most business use, it is connected to real-time data.

Big data analysis is any level of data analysis carried out on big data. Big data refers to data that is very large (high volume), comes in very fast (high velocity) and is a combination of both structured and unstructured data (variety). Any form of analysis for big data requires some special tools (new technologies) that are different from the traditional tools used for data analysis. That is why it is separately classified as big data analysis. And in reality, the businesses using big data all try to use at the predictive or prescriptive data analysis level.

I noticed recently that my phone lines recharge do not last long. I use MTN and Airtel. So I decided to do a test. I made calls and waited for the after-call notification of call charge summary. What I saw was a preponderous rate!

MTN charged me N3.85 for a 7 seconds call. Guess the rate used? 55kobo/sec. I thought it was just that particular call. I checked many times again -- from less than on minute calls to 15 minutes call. Same rate of 55kobo/sec was applied.

So I took my Airtel phone and did same check.

I noticed something similar. For a 6 secs call, Airtel charged me N2.40. That is a rate of 40kobo/sec. No wonder my bill is always getting above N10,000 by middle of month.

I don't know about Etisalat and Glo, but I suspect that they are also using similarly high billing rates as the industry is price competitive.

I am now being more careful with my phone calls. No more unduly long phone conversations, except it's a sales call.

And, please, if you use Etisalat and Glo. Do help us check what rates they are using now. And if you have MTN and Airtel, are your rates similar to mine?

image: futurestartup.com

As an entrepreneur, you'll first run out of cash and then time. Usually, you will gain back the cash but it is a lot more difficult to gain back the time. 

For me, each day runs by very fast. Like the hours now have shorter minutes. There is always a lot to do and no enough time. I am busy Monday to Sunday, and it seems like it would be that way forever. Yet, I still don't get enough done. And it is similar, though to varying degrees, for all entrepreneurs.

So how do you manage your time as an entrepreneur?

1. Don't try to do everything. It's true that you might be able to do things better than the person you've hired. But you need to understand that you've got just 24 hours a day, and about 16 work hours a day. Why not spend it on more high value tasks and let other people handle the rest. I'm not good at following this advice. I currently do more than it's healthy (for both me and the company) to do. It's partly because of my personality; I seldom ask for help or delegate. Now I'm gradually changing.
2. Set up a system or process that runs itself. This is another part I am failing at. You should have systems that work independent of you. So you can rest or do something else and it won't shut down. I have managed to achieve that with my marketing. I have two staff there and set up automated digital marketing. That way, I have been freed completely from marketing. I can bury myself in other works and not worry about where the next clients will come from. In fact, we get an excess stream of prospective clients that keeping up with them is the main problem we face (not getting new prospects). I plan to achieve this also in the operations arm of the business. It's been difficult because there is cost involved. It's not like I have infinite resources and can afford to hire people to do all the tasks I do. The trick is about working out a business process model that will make us cover all running costs regardless of business swings that is common in the consulting business.
3. Avoid repeating yourself. Scale. If there is anything that most bothers me, it is the fact that I am having to work equally hard to get every extra naira. As a consulting company, every project is unique and requires working from scratch. And with this economic downturn, you will even be working harder for each naira. There is a lot of repeat effort. Same time consuming processes to win a contract/project, same pattern of time consuming meetings to scope the project and understand requirements, and building the solution from scratch. I am now getting sick of it. I am gradually shifting my focus to scaleable products. Something I can build once and keep selling. I just have to keep updating it with new features/content. I won't have to sweat hard for each extra naira. I have doubled-up on my web app development practice. I am turning down more jobs to have enough time to learn and practice it. Progress is slow but it's my ticket to a better business world. The paradise of having to make money while I (or the entire company) am asleep is only possible with products and not contracts.
4. Focus. This is probably the only thing I am doing satisfactorily well. I have maintained my focus. I have not done like most Nigerians, spreading the business to cover unrelated services/products. I am even more deliberate in my focus, beyond sticking to the business data analysis only, I am also sticking to very few tools. I don't bother learning Tableau, Spotfire, SPSS, SAS and other analysis tools. I am not looking for job or building my CV. I have picked Excel (and it's child: Power BI). And for my web app: C#. I try to know them extremely productively well. So I work faster, better and more creatively with them. That way my project completion time is well optimized. What would take a master of many tools to accomplish in three days, I can get done in 6 hours. And since I know my tools inside out; I don't fall into the trap of taking a project Excel can't handle.

And those are my tips for time management to an entrepreneur.